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to Main In the early 1960's, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) realized that the lunar mission of the Apollo program would require a worldwide network of tracking and telemetry stations, many positioned in remote regions of the world. The Department of Defense (DoD) was also faced with similar considerations for its unmanned orbital and ballistic missile reentry test programs. Since land stations are obviously limited by geographical constraints, and instrumentation ships cannot be moved quickly enough to cover different positions during the same mission, it soon became evident that large gaps in coverage would occur. To fill these gaps, a new concept in tracking stations was developed - a high-speed aircraft containing the necessary instrumentation to assure spacecraft acquisition, tracking, and telemetry data recording. The same aircraft could provide coverage of translunar injection and recovery for NASA's manned space flight operation, as well as events of interest in the DOD orbital or ballistic missile reentry tests.
The airborne station concept became a reality in the Apollo/Range Instrumentation Aircraft (A/RIA). This highly mobile station was to operate worldwide, to receive and retransmit astronaut voices, and to record telemetry information from both the Apollo spacecraft and other NASA and DoD unmanned space vehicles. To implement the concept, NASA and DoD jointly funded the modification of eight C-135 jet transport/cargo aircraft. The A/RIA, designated EC-135N, became operational in January 1968; having been modified at the basic cost of $4.5 million per aircraft.
The management responsibility for the initial modification program was shared by both civilian and military agencies. NASA participated in all phases of development and simulation testing. The DoD developed policy considerations and assigned overall responsibility for procurement to the Electronic Systems Division of the USAF. The Air Force Eastern Test Range (AFETR) was selected to operate and maintain the system in support of the test and evaluation (T&E) community. McDonnell-Douglas Corporation and Bendix Corporation were the contractors for the design, aircraft modification, and testing of the electronic equipment.
In December 1975, after 7 years of operation by the AFETR, all ARIA (redesignated Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft following completion of the Apollo program) were transferred to the 4950th Test Wing, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, as part of an Air Force consolidation of large T&E aircraft. In 1994, the ARIA program was again transferred; this time to the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, California as part of an Air Force consolidation of Test Ranges. Since then, the 412th Test Wing has provided test support, personnel, and resources for the operational use of, and modifications and improvements to, the ARIA fleet.
Since arriving at Wright-Patterson AFB in 1975, the ARIA fleet has undergone numerous conversions, including re-engining of the EC-135N ARIA to the EC-135E and the acquisition and conversion of used Boeing 707 commercial airliners to ARIA (designated EC-18B and EC-18D). Currently, a major upgrade is being implemented to the Prime Mission Electronic Equipment (PMEE) to better support ARIA customers in the coming years. In addition, two of the EC-18B's have been fitted with aerial refueling ports to increase ARIA on station time when covering missions with longer launch windows. The current ARIA fleet consists of one EC-135E, and three EC-18B aircraft.
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